Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A 13-year-old boy was killed and ten people were injured in an accidental shooting incident in the Brazilian town of Rondonopolis.

The police were staging a mock hijack as a training exercise with real people in a bus as an audience on Saturday. They fired their guns at cardboard cutouts of criminals in the exercise. However, they used live ammunition in their guns, and the shots went straight through the cutouts and the glass windows of the bus.

Luis Henrique Dias Bulhoes, 13, was killed by a single shot to the head received from one of three 12-gauge shotguns that were amongst the weaponry the 16 police were using. Among the 600 people attending the exercise, six children and three adults were also injured.

Police admitted to the blunder on Monday. They believe bullets from more than one gun reached the audience. Seven of the 16 policeman are temporarily dismissed from their positions pending investigations.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Due to the province-wide college strike, events at Humber College in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada have been cancelled or delayed.

Latin Jazz Night, set to happen on Wednesday evening at 8:00 pm is cancelled, as is an Evening of Sketch Comedy, which was scheduled for Sunday, March 12 at 8:00 pm.

The Evening of Sketch Comedy is organized by students of the Humber School of Comedy. Humber is the only institution to offer comedy courses at a post-secondary or post-graduate level. The Evening is a part of students’ marks.

Theatre Humber’s production of The Rover has survived the axe. Set to play from Friday, March 31 – Saturday, April 8 at the Humber Theatre, it has been pre-emptively postponed.

Faculty of 24 colleges across the province went on strike as of Monday night, after no deal was made in continued collective bargaining.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

London – A few hundred England fans weren’t watching the 2006 FIFA World Cup match against Sweden last night in a pub or at home, but instead had ventured out to their local cinema to see the game on the big screen. A number of Odeon cinemas nationwide have been using digital projection technology to screen the matches live with a high definition (HD) picture. HD broadcasts contain a greater level of detail than traditional TV broadcasts, meaning a sharper picture and better sound quality.

In the darkened auditorium of the cinema in Covent Garden, the audience (or should that be crowd?) were behaving almost as if they were at the stadium, singing along to the national anthem, cheering at the England goals and groaning at the Sweden chances. At times, chants being sung by the England crowd at the match were even picked up and sung along to by those watching the cinema screen like some kind of football karaoke contest.

Trailers before the match were replaced by a soundtrack of England anthems, both the successful and not-so-successful ones, and the traditional movie treat of popcorn was replaced by trays of beer (in plastic cups) being brought in by the punters. The cinema had cheekily listed the screening as being ‘directed by Sven-Göran Eriksson’ and as ‘starring Wayne Rooney (hopefully)’.

Despite a disappointing 2-2 draw, the audience seemed impressed with the experience. “I’m a bit short and so wanted to make sure I had good view without having to jostle around for position,” Amanda, from London, explained to me. “I also liked that it was non-smoking, and there was a fabulous atmosphere”. Sian, Caio and Laura, who lived locally, said they wanted to see the match on the big screen and commented on the excellent picture quality.

Other events that have been broadcast by the cinema chain include concerts by Robbie Williams and Elton John. Odeon Marketing Director Luke Vetere said “offering films is just one part of the cinema experience – our ambition is to offer guests the chance to watch other events they feel passionate about”. Watching football in the cinema is not a brand new event though, during previous World Cups such as in 1966, film footage from the matches was broadcast in cinemas after the event, providing a way for people to see the games in colour when TV broadcasts were in black and white.

Cinema screenings aren’t the only way that fans can watch the World Cup games in high-definition this year though, as both Sky TV and Telewest have been broadcasting the games in HD to viewers with a special set-top box. There have been trials with HD on the growing Freeview platform too, with a pilot group of a few hundred viewers in London. However, as any move to roll out HD on Freeview would use up extra space on the broadcast spectrum and would require viewers to buy a new set-top box, it seems unlikely that this will happen any time soon.

Friday, May 13, 2005

According to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the annual rate of inflation in Ireland has begun to rise again after a period of decline. Annualised inflation is now running at 2.2%, up from 2.1% in March.

The figures are derived from the Consumer Price Index which is monitored by the CSO. Despite the increase, inflation remains significantly below the figure for recent years. Annualised inflation peaked at 5.1% in February 2003.

The major contributor to the rise was the cost of heating and housing with the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels group rising 10.6% in the past 12 months – with 2% of that rise in the last month alone.

When broken down more the section marked Energy Products showed a massive 5.3% rise in the past month alone.

This sharp rise in energy costs was offset somewhat by decreases (over the past 12 months) in the following groups:

• Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (-0.5%)
• Clothing and Footwear (-2.8%)
• Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (-1.4%)
• Communications (-0.2%)
• Miscellaneous Goods & Services (-1.3%).

According to the CSO the Consumer Price Index is made up of over 55,000 prices consisting of 613 headings which cover over 1,000 different items.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Wikinews will be attending The 2007 MuchMusic Video Awards this weekend, a popular annual event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. True stars will be out to play, present, and else wise schmooze at the CHUM-City Building just above the city’s Entertainment District in the Queen Street West neighbourhood.

MuchMusic is the most popular music channel in Canada, and has been holding the event since 1990. Roughly 6000 fans line the streets surrounding Much headquarters each year, and 1200 more score “the wristband” and enjoy a free festival-style show in the parking lot, watching four outdoor performance areas spread out in the downtown location. New this year is a special roof-top stage, on the top of the building.

Last year’s show reached 3.5 million viewers in Canada and 100 million around the globe, with broadcasts in 65 countries.

Performing at the show will be Avril Lavigne, Fergie, Billy Talent, Hilary Duff, Alexisonfire, Maroon 5, Belly, The Used, and Finger Eleven.

On stage presenting will be Nickelback, Jay Manuel (Canada’s Next Top Model, America’s Next Top Model), Tara Reid (American Pie, this fall’s Land of Canaan), Joss Stone, Sum 41, Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia, Grudge 2), Hedley, Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors), Sean Avery (New York Rangers), George, Sam Roberts, Emilie de Ravin (LOST), Marianas Trench, and Kardinal Offishall.

Photographer Robin Wong will be photographing the red carpet of the MMVAs for Wikinews and Wikipedia. He first helped the sites in April of this year, photographing Hilary Duff at MuchMusic. Wong’s extensive client list includes Fidelty Investments, Flare Magazine, Masterfile, First Light, Fashion Television, FCB Canada, Profit Magazine, Financial Post, and Publicis. His works have appeared in the 2004 and 2005 Applied Arts Awards Annual, the top publication for the creative industry.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) co-chief executive and chairman, Jim Balsillie, has resigned voluntarily as chairman after an internal review revealed irregularities with how the company accounted for stock options.

The review was carried out over the past 7 months and indicates that, Canadian BlackBerry maker, RIM, will have to restate earnings for all of 2004, 2005, and 2006, and for the first quarter of 2007. The company will have to lower previously reported earnings by approximately US$250 million.

The review committee indicated that RIM “failed to maintain adequate internal and accounting controls with respect to the issuance of options in compliance with the Company’s stock option plan, both in terms of how options were granted and documented, and the measurement date used to account for certain option grants”.

Although the review finds that there was no deliberate misconduct, both Balsillie and co-chief executive, Michael Lazaridis, have agreed to pay, voluntarily, up to $5 million each to compensate the company for the costs of the review and restatement.

All RIM directors and C-level officers will have to pay back any monies received incorrectly as a result of the option irregularities.

Balsillie will retain his positions as co-chief executive and director. In a press release, the company stated that “consistent with current best practices in corporate governance, the roles of chairman and CEO are being separated”. Current RIM chief financial officer, Dennis Kavelman, will move to the position of chief operating officer.

RIM is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market and is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Dublin – Yahoo!, the internet portal, today announced it has chosen Dublin, Ireland as the location of its European Headquarters. Ireland beat off stiff competition from other European countries to win the investment. The move is expected to create over 400 jobs – two thirds of which are expected to be for graduates with skills in information technology, financial services, customer support and website editorial.

Earlier in the month, Ireland lost a potentially multi-billion euro investment by Dell for a new manufacturing facility to Scotland. This was a huge disappointment for IDA Ireland – the countries main development agency – which had offered heavy incentives to the US computer maker. This brought about fears that Ireland had lost its ability to attract high-value investments from foreign multinationals – the driving force of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy.

Speaking about the investment, the Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said winning the Yahoo project was a “truly outstanding achievement for Ireland”. Yahoo’s Senior Vice President International, John Marcom, said the decision to locate its European operations headquarters in Ireland was influenced by a “number of factors” which included “the calibre and volume of graduates available in Ireland, the up to date cost competitive telecommunications and data centre infrastructure, and the assistance of IDA Ireland.”

Yahoo is one of the world’s largest internet companies. Its decision to locate in Ireland confirms Dublin’s continued attractiveness to internet and technology companies – Google, Bell Labs, eBay, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle all have significant Irish operations.

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Monday, April 9, 2007

Sunderland is the new leader of the Coca Cola Championship after a 2-1 victory over Southampton on Monday night. Roy Keane’s side has been storming up the table in past weeks, having not lost since the sixth of January, a total of sixteen games. Both teams are in the hunt for promotion, with Sunderland likely to qualify automatically. Southampton on the other hand has a chance to qualify for the Premiership through the playoffs. Leon Best and Marek Saganowski were started as strikers for Southampton, while Sunderland started David Connolly and Stephen Elliott up front.

The first half was played out evenly, with Sunderland getting the better of the chances as David Connolly struck the post. Southampton started the scoring in the second half when Marek Saganowski poked home a cut back cross by Danny Guthrie. Carlos Edwards tied up the match for Sunderland ten minutes later from a high quality strike. The Trinidad international gathered the ball on the right, cut to his left, and unleashed a cannon into the top corner past keeper Bartosz Bialkowski. As the game neared its end, Sunderland scored the winner through substitute Grant Leadbitter, as his equally powerful shot was beyond Bialkowski, giving the Black Cats the three points.

With third place Birmingham City loosing in Barnsley and second place Derby County tying Coventry, first place in the league is left for the Black Cats with only five games remaining in the season. The loss leaves Southampton out of the playoff picture for the time being, but they are only one point back of sixth place Preston North End.